Rotary encoders for use in the food and beverage industries have to meet high requirements. Incremental and absolute encoders from Hengstler stand out as a result of their high signal fidelity and are extremely robust. They are ideally suited for applications in the food & beverage sector.
Whether it is dairies, bakeries or the packaging industry: they all rely on encoders from Hengstler. Encoders from the town of Aldingen, south-west Germany, monitor the thickness of the dough during the baking processes as well as the speed and position of the stirrer in curd cheese production. For use in the food, beverages and packaging industries, Hengstler supplies both incremental and absolute encoders – either with a solid or a hollow shaft.
Incremental encoders feature high line counts and are known to be highly flexible. For example, customers can choose from numerous flange and connection variants for the ICURO RI58 and ICURO RI59, while the ICURO RI76 is easily installed using the clamping ring. Resolution ranges from 14,400 steps with 3,600 pulses (ICURO RI36) to 40,000 steps with 10,000 pulses (ICURO RI58 and ICURO RI59).
In addition to incremental encoders, Hengstler also offers absolute encoders for the food and beverage industry. The encoders of the ACURO® series are characterised by high precision, outstanding robustness and low energy consumption. In the food processing sector, the ACURO® AC58 and ACURO® AC61 are the preferred choice. The ACURO® AC58 implements resolutions of 22 bits (single-turn) or 12 bits (multi-turn). That model can be used in a wide temperature range from -40 to +100 °C and is available with a solid or hollow shaft. Since this absolute encoder is equipped with the Profinet protocol 4.2, it is also suitable for IIoT applications.
The ACURO® AC61 has similar product characteristics to the ACURO® AC58, but its stainless steel housing makes it resistant to corrosion. Both these encoders can be configured in a variety of ways and have numerous interfaces (including CANopen, EtherCAT, BiSS, Profibus).